Local athletes master “Masters Track Nationals”

HUNTSVILLE – With 1,200 athletes from all over the world converging onto Huntsville’s newly renovated and expanded Milton Frank Stadium, it was many of the local athletes that stole the headlines for the 2025 USATF Masters Outdoor Track & Field Nationals.

Hosted by the Huntsville Sports Commission in conjunction with the Huntsville/ Madison County Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Huntsville City Schools, the four-day extravaganza showcased the best of the best with several local athletes turning back time and posting outstanding performances on their way to earning medals for a job well done.

Topping the list was 42-year old Easter Grant of Toney who won three gold medals. A software developer contractor, Grant took gold medals in the 100meter (12.51-Seconds), 200meter (25.57) and was the anchor leg of the gold medal winning 4X100 relay team.

“I really didn’t have a game plan going into the Masters Nationals as I was planning on doing what my body would allow me to and I think I did well,” said Grant of her winning efforts. “I relaxed more this year as I had no high expectations, but certainly did about winning.”

For Grant, it was sort of a “full circle moment” for the former UAH track star who was the first-ever UAH sprinter to qualify for the NCAA National Championships in 2004. She was part of the Lady Chargers track team from 2001-2005 coming to the Rocket City from Birmingham where she first took a liking to running in middle school, but took hold of her talents on the track in high school before signing an athletic scholarship to run for UAH. She still holds a UAH team record as part of the 4×200 relay set in 2005.

“While I was at UAH we would practice at Milton Frank Stadium, and now, coming back to the facility as a runner and not as a UAH runner was great and a good feeling to be able to come back,” said Grant. The 5-foot-7 sprinter added, “It seemed like a fresh new meet for me as I’m happy to be home.”

In 2024, she won the same events at the Outdoor Championships held in Sweden and most recently took home gold medals in both the 60 and 200meter at the World Masters Athletics Indoor Championships.

Grant currently holds four American records for women in the 40-44 age division. She set new records in 2024 in the 200meter (24.65) and 100meter (12.02) and the indoor marks in both the 60meter (7.71) and 200m (24.60).

Currently running for the Southwest Sprinters Track Club, Grant will face her next big event in 2026 at the 2026 World Masters Athletics to be held in Korea.

Another outstanding display of athletic talent at the 2025 Masters Outdoors came from Antoine Echols, a Master Sergeant in the U.S. Army stationed in Huntsville who won a national championship in both the 100m and 200m events as part of the men’s 40-44 age division. He set a time of 10.74 in the 100m and a time of 22.31 in the 200m to take home gold.

“I went into the four-day event a little stressful as being here at home in front of family, friends and co-workers, plus the heat and humidity was an issue,” said Echols. The 5-10, 190-pound athlete, who has been in the Army for 18 years and is married to his wife, Anna, and have three children, took to the starting block in his two races with confidence and he said everything went as he planned. “The 100 went as expected while the 200 was similar. “I wanted one of the outside lanes in the 200, which I got in lane six, and I made the other runners run my race.”

Echols runs for the Joy’s Jack Rabbits Club of California.

Westminster High track coach Cordell Sunday had a plentiful few days at the track as he won a National Championship in the triple jump, took second in the long jump, was third in the 200m and fifth in the 100m among the 35-39 men’s division.

One of the local race directors was Carlos Matthews, who is the Huntsville City Schools Board President, and recently called the Stadium “Milton Frank Fast Track,” was busy on the track racing for the TNT International Racing Club in the 50-54 age division. He took the bronze medal in the long jump with a mark of 5.21meters, which is 17-feet, one and a quarter inches. He was fifth in the 100m with a time of 12.56.

Longtime track coach at James Clemens who retired after the most recent school year and 36 years of coaching in his career, Drew Bell, also had a splendid event earning eight All-American honors (top 8) including two gold medals, and one each silver and bronze. He won gold in both the 4×800 and 4×100 relays, a silver in the 4×400 relay and the bronze in the steeplechase event, which included seven and a half laps around the track at the 12,000 seat Milton Frank Stadium. Additional finishes for Bell in the 50-59 age division included fourth in the 800m, fifth in the 10k road race, and seventh in both the 1500m and 5K race.

Overall, despite having to dodge rain showers that found their way through the area on each of the four days of the event, “The USATF officials loved the locale for the event as they liked the facilities we provided for the competitions, how organized we were in assisting them to run the event and the City of Huntsville and surrounding areas as many of the competitors expected something different than the metropolitan-type surroundings they experienced,” said Matthews.

The State of California was originally setup to host the event, but unexpectedly dropped out seven months ago. Huntsville immediately submitted a bid to host the games. “We had a short time to complete the throw areas of the expansion of Milton Frank Stadium and actually had to make some last minute adjustments according to the specs provided by the event authorities. Our crew did a great job of getting everything ready for the 1,200 athletes,” said Matthews. “The event officials trusted us enough to get all completed, which we did. I believe they’d love to return.”

Carlos Matthews wears his bronze medal he won in the 50-54 age division of the Masters Outdoor Track & Field Nationals held at Huntsville’s newly renovated Milton Frank Stadium.